Posts Tagged ‘moral equivalence’

Since 1968, when my essay “The Crisis of Our Times” appeared in the Congressional Record, I have written several books warning of the subversive influence of the university-bred doctrine of moral and cultural relativism. Nineteen years later Allan Bloom wrote The Closing of the American Mind: How Higher Education Has Failed Democracy and Impoverished the Souls of Today’s Students. And now Melanie Phillips has just published The World Turned Upside Down: The Global Battle over God, Truth, and Power, which blames relativism as the root cause of the Western decadence.

Relativism dominates the social sciences and humanities. It has stultified generations of college students who become our politicians, diplomats, judges, and journalists. Relativism, known also “moral equivalence,” was the target of my recent critique of former US ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk who, like Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is a university graduate that advocates the “two-state” solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Such university-education officials can’t cope with stark reality: Jews and Muslims have utterly antagonistic ideas of human nature and society. One exalts peace and democracy, the other war and autocracy. The two-state solution implies moral equivalence. That Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu endorses this solution only reveals his lack of moral courage, since his insistence on a demilitarized Palestinian state confirms Islamic bellicosity. Read the rest of this entry »